Last winter, Everyday Church’s Kingston venue opened its doors over 6 Tuesday evenings to take part in the Winter Night Shelter project, working together with other local churches to provide vital support to rough sleepers in the Kingston area.
Kingston now has a purpose-built centre for homeless and vulnerable people all year round, which was developed by the Joel Community Trust in partnership with Kingston Churches Action against Homelessness (KCAH).
The centre is based at St Peter’s Church in Norbiton, a few minutes’ walk from Everyday Kingston, and currently accommodates up to 14 people, providing much-needed food, friendship and shelter.
The centre is organised and well thought-out, meals are healthy (no fry-ups, pizza or pudding!) and guests share in the chores and laundry. The average stay is just over 7 weeks, and the aim is to prepare guests to move on to more permanent housing and a more secure future.
To focus on the mechanics, though, is to miss the point. Dan Wheeler, the project’s manager, sums it up simply:
‘People are homeless, not house-less. It’s not about bricks and mortar, but about love, acceptance, a place where they have a stake and are treated equally. Homelessness is about isolation.’
This vision of building community and restoring a sense of dignity and self-respect is evident throughout. Guests are encouraged to speak openly and honestly, work through issues and conflicts together in an environment of mutual support and understanding. Dan is keen for them to give back to the community, and a group recently participated on a volunteering day at the Alpha Road Estate by setting up and staffing stalls, and another group represented the Joel Community Trust at Southwark Cathedral, speaking about the Good Samaritan. There are plans for more daytime activities afoot, and an Alpha course.
How can you get involved?
1. You can pray (plans for the project are to ultimately include a night shelter with 14 bedrooms and a life skills development centre);
2. You can give financially to the project;
3. You can give your time by becoming a volunteer:
As this is a permanent night shelter, there’s no shortage of opportunities to serve; each night/morning there are 3 shifts, and though a minimum of 3 volunteers is needed per shift, more volunteers means more people can spend time getting to know guests and building relationships.
If you would like to run a daytime activity or have a skill/hobby to share, this is your chance – computers, photography, film, poetry, arts & crafts, sport, gardening or even just coming over to share your BBQ/braii skills, your help and support would be very welcome! Please contact Dan for more details.
One of Dan’s stories reminds us never to underestimate what God can do with what we give. A guest at the Winter Night Shelter, a tough man involved in a gang, was so surprised when an elderly lady sat next to him that he asked her why she was speaking to him. She replied she was a Christian and the ensuing conversation so impressed him that he came back as a guest to the project, keen to know more about Jesus.
The project’s inspiration comes from Isaiah 58:6-7; the words still ring out today not only as the cry of God’s heart against injustice and for the oppressed, but as a call to action for all of us:
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your foot with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter…